Abe – Itsuki Fantasy for Six Mallets

This piece is one of the rare marimba solos requiring the performer to hold three mallets in each hand. Though otherwise simple, this novel technique adds a new degree of difficulty to the piece. Some of the challenges the player will encounter are playing a melodic with three voice accompany, small interval changes between the mallets in each hand, chromaticism, and 6 note block chords. This is one of Abe’s more lyrical compositions, in part due to the cumbersome nature of 6 mallet technique.